Yours or Mine
by MidnightRun42
Summary: In which a gift is freely given.


_"If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever."_  
\- Alfred Tennyson

 **-ooo-**

"No, I love it, I mean, obviously, but I can't keep it," Akko replied, pushing the box back against Diana's chest for the fourth time as if it weren't perfectly obvious that doing so would make no difference whatsoever.

It wasn't as if she'd come to this decision lightly.

She'd agonized over it for years.

It hadn't been until that very morning that she'd made the final decision and given the card one last longing look before shutting it away safely in its case and going to meet Akko beneath the trees behind the school.

She had explained this... if not quite in so many words.

Of course, it was not terribly surprising that Akko had refused to accept her words as truth.

Akko had never been one for fact when those facts did not agree with her particular school of thought, after all, as evidenced by everything she'd ever done since the moment they'd met all those years ago.

It was one of many reasons why she...

It was just why she'd called her out to give her this gift just hours before they were meant to give their speeches and leave all this behind to begin the rest of their lives in earnest. They were both already dressed in their graduation finery and her fingers ached with the desire to pull Akko's robes off her and give them a good ironing. They'd clearly spent years shoved into the back of a closet somewhere and it showed in the way they hung too large over her shoulders and how they were positively littered with creases that begged for the touch of an iron.

"I don't see why not," Diana replied, stifling the urge to breath a frustrated sigh. It really was no concern of hers whether Akko went before the whole of the school in robes that looked as if they brrn playfully mauled by a passing bear. "I have made it quite clear that I wish for you to have it."

Akko huffed, standing back and clutching the box to her chest once more. "Well, I really appreciate it, but I can't just take something that obviously means so much to you."

"I am satisfied knowing you will value it and care for it as I have," she insisted, folding her arms more tightly across her breasts as if that might keep the feeling there locked inside where none might ever see it.

Akko chewed at her bottom lip and Diana felt her stomach flutter nervously.

She was all too familiar with that look.

That was the look she always got when she was about to dig her heels in and begin poking her nose into other people's business.

This had clearly been a terrible idea.

"Fine," she said, clearing her throat and holding out her hands. "If you don't want it then I'll give it to someone else."

Akko made a noise like a cat that had gotten its tail caught in a door and took a big step back, clutching the box to her chest defensively and giving her the sort of look that should clearly have been reserved for someone who was threatening to eat her first born or something equally absurd.

"No way! You can't just give it to just anyone. What if they don't care of it? Or they sell it or... or... they let people touch it with greasy hands?"

The very thought sent a shudder through her.

The very idea.

As if she would ever give it over to someone who would treat it so poorly.

She wasn't a _monster_.

"So, we're in agreement then? You will take it and care for it in an appropriate manner?"

"Hey! Were you just trying to trick me?"

Obviously.

"I assure you, nothing could be further from the truth. I simply wish for it to go to a good home and I can think of no one who would take better care of it than you."

"Diana..." Akko breathed her name and the sound shivered up her spine like a touch.

Oh dear.

"Yes, well, it's nothing," she said quickly, already stepping back and away as if she had any chance of escaping what was coming without simply turning on her heel and dashing away in the most undignified manner available. "I only wished to express my gratitude for all you have done and now that I've done that I shall be go-"

Then Akko's arms were around her, warm and tight and looped around her neck and shoulders with enough force to steal her breath away.

 _oh._

Oh, but she had so been hoping to avoid this very thing.

It was like being a child again, having Akko's arms locked around her as they chased monsters on broomstick with the fate of the world resting heavy on their shoulders. Only it isn't like that at all really. Then she'd been so focused on their goal she hadn't had even a moment's thought to spare for how those arms around her waist made her feel.

That had come later.

Much later.

In dreams and brief shameful fantasy played out in her mind late at night beneath the cover of darkness when she was quite alone and free to think of such things without fear of discovery. The way warmth would flood through her like a siren's song as she pictured long, lazy mornings and broomrides that never ended and hands that lingered at her waist and adventurous fingers that would never shy away from touching her however they wished. A guilty indulgence she partook of only when no one could see and no one would ever have to know what she thought of when she pictured what shape her future might have taken if she were free of the obligations that would stood as waymakers along the path her life must take.

Not that she wished to be free of them.

She was proud of her heritage and eager to carry on the family name. That was never the issue. She understood her duty and greatly desired to be the one to restore honor and prestige to the Cavendish name. But that wasn't all that she dreamt of. No one had but one dream to keep them warm at night.

Except for Akko, perhaps.

She'd always been shockingly single-minded in that regard.

"Thank you," Akko murmured, her breath warm against her cheek, lips just barely brushing her skin.

And, oh, this was what temptation felt like. This warm, heady mix that went straight to her head and had her reaching out before she could think better of it, to slide her palms over Akko's back and draw her closer.

She smelled of sunshine, the sweet scent of magic and some sort of green tea shampoo.

It was the sort of smell she could never see herself tiring of.

"I'll treasure it forever."

"I would expect nothing less," she replied, closing her eyes and reveling in the moment, brief and transitory though it was.


End file.
